Self-Regulation and Motivation

This seminar provides an overview of classic and contemporary social psychological approaches to the study of self-regulation and motivation. We will spend some time trying to answer the questions that necessarily begin any study of self-regulation and motivation, "what is motivation? What is it that people really want?," examining several major theories that have suggested different answers to those questions. We will also examine major theories of goal structure and the dynamics of goal pursuit. We'll use this foundation to think broadly about what social psychological research has to say about how people manage (and mismanage) life's opportunities and challenges, especially how individuals respond to success and failure, persist in the face of challenge, and resist temptation.